[Primer] Dredge

I flew out from Australia to also jam at GP Seattle - was my first real jam with dredge since buying in.

R1: Bye
R2: Bye
R3: 1-2 Red MUD (Daretti, 3sphere, Chalice)
R4: 2-1 Elves
R5: 2-1 Miracles
R6: 0-2 Red Prison
R7: 0-2 Mirror (opp had 3/1 amalgam/ichorid split vs my 0/4, and had leylines postboard)
R8: 0-2 Aluren (wasn't really playing properly at this point)

I feel pretty happy with my performance despite the result because I feel like I won the matchups I thought I could win and lost the matchups that felt horrendous (minus the Aluren game, where my heart wasnt really in it.)

Deck was a blast to play and I'm keen to sink my teeth into the archetype more. No cards felt like underperformers and I'm extremely happy with the list.

Decklist:
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
3 Golgari Thug
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
3 Putrid Imp
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Street Wraith
3 Breakthrough
4 Bridge from Below
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Careful Study
4 Faithless Looting
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Cephalid Coliseum
2 City of Brass
3 Gemstone Mine
4 Mana Confluence

Sideboard:
1 Ashen Rider
1 Breakthrough
2 Dread Return
3 Firestorm
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
2 Lotus Petal
2 Serenity
3 Silent Gravestone

(excuse the formatting, just copied it off the cfb email.)

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by Que

Hi All, got back yesterday. Was just relaxin. I'll have another post with highlights or notes I thought were interesting in my matchups. I ended 10-5 good for 1 pro point; 140th overall. Wish my results could have been better, but I'm glad I was able to power through to day two without any byes and come out with a winning record at the end of it. It was a great experience and I had a great trip overall getting to see Seattle with my good friends. Here were my matchups:

Round 1: Gerard Ahquin on Sneak & Show, W 2-1
1-0
Round 2: William Thomas on Czech Pile, W 2-1
2-0
Round 3: Benjamin Brueseke on Grixis Delver, W 2-0
3-0
Round 4: Ryder Nishioka on Mono Red Prison, L 0-2
3-1
Round 5: James Miller on Death and Taxes, W 2-0
4-1
Round 6: Lu Chao on Noble Bant Blade, W 2-0
5-1
Round 7: Tyler Mollenkopf on Elves, L 1-2
5-2
Round 8: Matthew Mercier on Elves, W 2-1
6-2
Round 9: Brenden Hickey on Sneak & Show, W 2-1
7-2
Round 10: Zan Zyed on Grixis Delver/Bomat, L 0-2
7-3
Round 11: Cody Nicely on Grixis Delver, L 0-2
7-4
Round 12: Isaiah Manalo on Tin Fins, W 2-1
8-4
Round 13: Ty Sloo on Lands, W 2-1
9-4
Round 14: Daniel Wong on Sneak & Show, W 2-0
10-4
Round 15: Robert Shilander on Omniscience, L 1-2
10-5

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Originally Posted by Vissah

Nice one! Congrats on getting a pro point.
Would love to read more and of course a decklist would be very nice 😃

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I actually decided to take Orim's list to the GP. I just figured he had done extensive testing on mtgo and that was more testing than I had done period. I felt comfortable piloting any dredge list so I didn't mind at all. I also thought that the GP would house a good number of the decks found on the mtgo meta which made my decision all the more easier. The list is here: http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=18911&d=318570&f=LE The only difference is the sideboard. I had no serenity and simply had 3 Wear/Tear. Everything else was the same.

Round 1 Nothing extra special of note. I remember dread returning Ashen Rider to exile one of his lands, Flashing back Cabal Therapy naming Show and Tell and hitting while exiling yet another land and any hope of his winning. If you have the chance to cut them off resources then I would advise to do so. Usually you're replacing the power you lost with zombies.

Round 4 I have a typical dredge hand, however, I'm only able to hit one Cabal Therapy. This would be the first time I see anything in his hand. My initial thought process was to put as much power on the board with the Therapy so I naturally named Fiery Confluence to protect the zombies I had created. However, I completely forgot to consider the only card that could actually beat me in that type of scenario. To my horror I see Ensnaring Bridge hanging out in our opponents hand after I decide to name. He's able to drop it into play on his next turn. I spend the following turns smacking him around with Narcos and Putrid Imp getting him down to 3 before he's able to play out every single card he draws. I continue to play the game for the extra information, then quickly move to game 2.
Game 2 was much worse as he drops early lock pieces and I'm never really in it. Quite unfortunate.

Round 5. I was able to put out enough power on the board via zombies as I stripped my opponent's hand to no cards. On the board my opponent has Vial set to 2, Recruiter of the Guard, and Flickerwisp. I like my position as I had just dumped at least a couple of Ichorids into my yard that will comeback the following turn. My opponent has other plans as he top decks another flicker wisp. He plays it targeting his recruiter which comes back EOT tapped which finds him Containment Priest which he drops in response to my Ichorid triggers with his Vial. Lucky for me I did have some zombies which I was able to shove before the top deck to force chump blocks. I fade a draw the next turn and force additional blocks from the Priest this time which turns on my Ichorids and allows me to cleanup. It was just a tense moment overall.

Round 7 Game 3 I mull to 3 as all other opening hands are complete dog crap. I had a small window where I floated 3 R mana, 3 U mana in the face of a sick DRS off a couple of LEDs. I flashback Faithless looting I had cast earlier looking for a dredger as I also had a Cephalid Coliseum at the ready to Dredge 3 additional times if I could find at least one off the Looting. But I don't and die.

Round 8 Game 3 my opponent is on the play and makes a turn 1 DRS. I make a turn 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria naming Green. \m/

Round 9 Game 3 I'm able to cheat in Ashen Rider off my opponent's Show and Tell which got to target his Omniscience. I proceed to win the game from there.

Round 10 My opponent just does what good old grixis is built for. Disruption backed up with solid threats. I lose game 1 which sucks. Game 2 my opponents hand was Delver, Daze, FOW, FOW, Wasteland, Wasteland, Surgical Extraction... So I just took my licks and went to my next round. I also was saddened that I did not get to see bomat courier lol.

Round 11 Don't remember much. Again disruption and threats pretty stock stuff. Game 2 my opponent got down two quick TNNs and clocked me for 6 over a few turns to close me out. At this point I had almost had it with Grixis lol.

Round 12 My opponent Game 2 reanimated my own Putrid Imp to bin his Griselbrand. He reanimated it and combo'd me out. xD

Round 13 Game 1 I dredge into 3 Ichorids. I clock him for 9 then am left with residual zombies. He plays Tabernacle. I keep one zombie around and stack triggers returning my 3 Ichorids again and bashing him for 11 that turn killing him.
Game 2. My pop plays Misty Rainforest and passes back to me. I have the turn 1 nuts and contemplate going for it considering he might just blow me out with a Crop Rotation. I think about it for a sec, then consider my position in the tournament and decided to go for it and walk right into a Crop Rotation lol. ;p
Game 3 I'm able to Dread Return into Iona on Green with a few zombies. He doesn't find tabernacle or Glacial Chasm immediately and the game gets wrapped up quickly after that.

Round 14 My opp Show and Tells Emrakul into play. I have a few zombies and a Narcomoeba with 3 Bridges and some number of Ichorids. My life total is above 15. He swings triggers annihilator. I sac zombies and my Narco which triggers my bridges leaving enough power on the board along with my Ichorids to deal lethal on my turn; He did take damage earlier from his on Ancient Tomb as well.

Round 15 Game 1 my opp Releases the ants on my face. Game 2 I cheat in Ashen Rider off his own Show and Tell and get to exile his Omniscience and send it to game 3. Game 3 he plays a turn 1 Gravediggers cage. I play turn 1 PIMP and pass back. He doesn't have a 2nd land and passes back. I make a Narcomoeba and bash. He plays Lotus Petal on his following turn and passes back. I bring some more mediocre beats, but he draws another land and casts Show and tell into G. Brand. The game ends rather quickly from there.

Other Notes
Gravestones were nice. You get the feeling sometimes they wreck your opponents plans mainly because they keep hands strictly relying on it for not only hate, but for mana. It seemed like the correct choice considering I didn't see a single Cage (outside of the 1 in the 15th round), RIP, etc. and instead saw DRS and Surgical Extraction exclusively.

I also made it a point to not board in more than 5 cards at a time and I liked adhering to this rule during the event. I was growing tired of diluting my gameplay by trying to fight through the hate instead of just going with the old adage "when in doubt, combo them out!" :P

Thanks for the writeup Que, always like reading how fellow Dredgers are doing.

Hello fellow necromancers,
Long time lurker, I've been quite successful with the deck on my last tournaments, found that'd be a decent idea to post a fast report of my two last tournaments.
I'm on MD 4 Coliseums + 7 rainbow-lands + 2 Lotus Petal, 3/2 Ichorid/Amalgam split, 1 Wraith, 1 Pimp, no DR, full 4 of CS/BT - heavily tilted towards combo.
SB is 2 DR + Ashen + Iona, 4 Claim + 1 Grudge, 2 Firestorm, 2 Gravestone, 2 Wraith.

French Legacy Cup side-event (#1/29)
R1 2-0 vs. Death & Taxes
R2 0-2 vs. Elves
R3 2-0 vs. ANT
R4 2-1 vs. Grixis Delver
R5 ID
QF 2-0 vs. BtB Miracles
SF 2-1 vs. Painter
F 2-1 vs. Grixis Delver
Not much to say there. The French Legacy Cup main event being an Invitational and taking place at the same time, this meant that people playing the side-event failed to qualify - which, in turn, says a bit about their level as Legacy players - no offense towards them, but I've seen lots, lots of mistakes.
Lost R2 to Elves mostly due to my deck derping, the rest was a smooth sail.

Eternal Week-End Trial, Paris (#1/56)
R1 2-0 vs. ANT
R2 2-1 vs. Lands
R3 2-1 vs. BUG Leovold
R4 1-2 vs. Deathblade
R5 2-0 vs. BUG Delver
QF 2-0 vs. Burn
SF 2-1 vs. Deathblade
F 2-0 vs. Czech Pile
Won R2 vs. Lands in the additional turns, thanks to a well-timed Ashen Rider exiling Dark Depths and Tabernacle. Got caught in G1 of R4 against Deathblade, I may have misplayed there, cast Breakthrough for X=1 instead of X=0 after having my T1 Looting Dazed and got Dazed a second time, which, followed by a double-TNN, wrecked me. Won the QF against Burn thanks to Iona on red flooding my opponent's Ensnaring Bridge.

The list is satisfying but could do with some additional work for the upcoming Eternal Week-End.
I lost too many G1s to DRS to my liking, I'm considering going towards more resiliency against Deathrite : I'm thinking about -1 Coliseum +1 Rainbow, -1/2 Study/Breakthrough +1/2 Street Wraith. Despite being a huge fan of Coliseum, 4 proved to be a bit too much, and I wish I had an additional rainbow-land in lieu of the 4th Coliseum. Been extremely satisfied with 11 lands + 2 petals, allows either more explosivity or good resiliency against Daze decks.
In the sideboard, I found myself only boarding Claims in once in 15 rounds, i.e. against Painter. I'm considering playing Wear//Tear in lieu of them, for the flexibility against Chalice decks. If I'm to add 1/2 SW to the MD, I'll remove those from the side, freeing some space, which would allow me to run an additional rainbow-land in the SB, and maybe an additional Firestorm/Gravestone.
I've been finding Gravestones excellent, but I think I mistakenly boarded them in against Delver decks, they should probably stay in the sideboard.
Due to permanent grave-hate being less prevalent these days, at the expense of Surgicals which are way less back-breaking, I'm also considering going -1 Claim (or W//T) +1 Firestorm, DRS seems to be the thing to deal with right at the moment.
Any thoughts about the aforementioned changes ? :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Unlif3

Hello fellow necromancers,
Long time lurker, I've been quite successful with the deck on my last tournaments, found that'd be a decent idea to post a fast report of my two last tournaments.
I'm on MD 4 Coliseums + 7 rainbow-lands + 2 Lotus Petal, 3/2 Ichorid/Amalgam split, 1 Wraith, 1 Pimp, no DR, full 4 of CS/BT - heavily tilted towards combo.
SB is 2 DR + Ashen + Iona, 4 Claim + 1 Grudge, 2 Firestorm, 2 Gravestone, 2 Wraith.

French Legacy Cup side-event (#1/29)
R1 2-0 vs. Death & Taxes
R2 0-2 vs. Elves
R3 2-0 vs. ANT
R4 2-1 vs. Grixis Delver
R5 ID
QF 2-0 vs. BtB Miracles
SF 2-1 vs. Painter
F 2-1 vs. Grixis Delver
Not much to say there. The French Legacy Cup main event being an Invitational and taking place at the same time, this meant that people playing the side-event failed to qualify - which, in turn, says a bit about their level as Legacy players - no offense towards them, but I've seen lots, lots of mistakes.
Lost R2 to Elves mostly due to my deck derping, the rest was a smooth sail.

Eternal Week-End Trial, Paris (#1/56)
R1 2-0 vs. ANT
R2 2-1 vs. Lands
R3 2-1 vs. BUG Leovold
R4 1-2 vs. Deathblade
R5 2-0 vs. BUG Delver
QF 2-0 vs. Burn
SF 2-1 vs. Deathblade
F 2-0 vs. Czech Pile
Won R2 vs. Lands in the additional turns, thanks to a well-timed Ashen Rider exiling Dark Depths and Tabernacle. Got caught in G1 of R4 against Deathblade, I may have misplayed there, cast Breakthrough for X=1 instead of X=0 after having my T1 Looting Dazed and got Dazed a second time, which, followed by a double-TNN, wrecked me. Won the QF against Burn thanks to Iona on red flooding my opponent's Ensnaring Bridge.

The list is satisfying but could do with some additional work for the upcoming Eternal Week-End.
I lost too many G1s to DRS to my liking, I'm considering going towards more resiliency against Deathrite : I'm thinking about -1 Coliseum +1 Rainbow, -1/2 Study/Breakthrough +1/2 Street Wraith. Despite being a huge fan of Coliseum, 4 proved to be a bit too much, and I wish I had an additional rainbow-land in lieu of the 4th Coliseum. Been extremely satisfied with 11 lands + 2 petals, allows either more explosivity or good resiliency against Daze decks.
In the sideboard, I found myself only boarding Claims in once in 15 rounds, i.e. against Painter. I'm considering playing Wear//Tear in lieu of them, for the flexibility against Chalice decks. If I'm to add 1/2 SW to the MD, I'll remove those from the side, freeing some space, which would allow me to run an additional rainbow-land in the SB, and maybe an additional Firestorm/Gravestone.
I've been finding Gravestones excellent, but I think I mistakenly boarded them in against Delver decks, they should probably stay in the sideboard.
Due to permanent grave-hate being less prevalent these days, at the expense of Surgicals which are way less back-breaking, I'm also considering going -1 Claim (or W//T) +1 Firestorm, DRS seems to be the thing to deal with right at the moment.
Any thoughts about the aforementioned changes ? :)

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This is the sideboard I play and it is working out pretty good so far against Delver decks.

2 Lotus Petal
4 Firestorm
2 Silent Gravestone
3 Wear // Tear
2 Dread Return
1 Ashen Rider
1 Iona

When I`m on the draw I switch out 4 Breakthrough for 4 Firestorm and when I`m on the play I take out 4 PImp and side 4 Breakthrought back in. It seems to work out fine for now. I`m thinking of also siding in my 2 Gravestones against Delver but I`m not really sure if that is the best thing to do against Delver.

Delver always brings in Grudge now, if that helps your decision.

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Originally Posted by Parcher

Delver always brings in Grudge now, if that helps your decision.

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Well that makes the decision a lot easier indeed :D

Thanks.

I might take the Gravestones out again for an extra Lotus Petal and an Ancient Grudge.

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Originally Posted by Vissah

Well that makes the decision a lot easier indeed :D

Thanks.

I might take the Gravestones out again for an extra Lotus Petal and an Ancient Grudge.

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Gravestones aren't there for delver, I believe a more standard sb plan is to just swap 3 PImps for 3 Firestorm or something in that matchup. Gravestones help with surgical snap surgical in Miracles and Czech Pile and, in some cases, slowing reanimator down and stopping loam recursion. They aren't really supposed to be sided in vs all decks that run surgical.

The last two/three weeks I see more people jamming Gravedigger`s Cage into their sideboard.

What is a good way to fight that card?

Shall I just keep going with Wear // Tear or is it better to switch them out for something like Nature`s Claim?
I play 12 lands if that makes a difference.

This is pretty hard to answer, because we don't know, which decks they are playing and how many cages they board in. If they are playing blue or also have a scary combo, boarding in answers for cage can backfire. But if it is really necessary to board in answers, claim is obviously better. I would still not expect to do well against a blue/combo deck with sth like 4 cages in the sb. It would be a better strategy to just choose another deck if that is the case.

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Originally Posted by Orim67

This is pretty hard to answer, because we don't know, which decks they are playing and how many cages they board in. If they are playing blue or also have a scary combo, boarding in answers for cage can backfire. But if it is really necessary to board in answers, claim is obviously better. I would still not expect to do well against a blue/combo deck with sth like 4 cages in the sb. It would be a better strategy to just choose another deck if that is the case.

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Ah sorry for not giving enough information Orim.

It`s just a 1 off that I see popping up so it is not as bad as it might sound like.
I seen it popping up in decks like Canadian and Aluren mostly.

Went 4-1 with an LED list yesterday.

Here were match-ups:

R1 [W] vs. Grixis Delver [2-0]
R2 [W] vs. Grixis Delver [2-1]
R3 [W] vs. Eureka-Tell [2-0]
R4 [L] vs. Eldrazi [1-2]
R5 [W] vs. Shardless [2-1]

I had a really sweet play in game three of the fifth round. I was on the play, and passed with no action. He drops T1 DRS. I discard Troll. He goes to his turn, Ponders, and then tries to eat the Troll. I cycle Street Wraith and hit gas. I proceed to my turn, dredge, and then drop Coliseum into Breakthrough.

Was pretty sweet.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Michael Keller

Went 4-1 with an LED list yesterday.

Here were match-ups:

R1 [W] vs. Grixis Delver [2-0]
R2 [W] vs. Grixis Delver [2-1]
R3 [W] vs. Eureka-Tell [2-0]
R4 [L] vs. Eldrazi [1-2]
R5 [W] vs. Shardless [2-1]

I had a really sweet play in game three of the fifth round. I was on the play, and passed with no action. He drops T1 DRS. I discard Troll. He goes to his turn, Ponders, and then tries to eat the Troll. I cycle Street Wraith and hit gas. I proceed to my turn, dredge, and then drop Coliseum into Breakthrough.

Was pretty sweet.

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Mr. Hollywood, nice to see you after so long! :cool:

What list did you play?

So I've been checking out the new set.
Muldrotha, the Gravetide & Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain are the top picks for me.
Dominaria is a pretty nice set for multiplayer, but it's not great for a dredger.

Doesn't Muldrotha seem like a win-more?

Need opinions;

Silent Gravestone vs. Elves. It does nothing to advance our game plan. And outside hate, Elves can do little to interact with us. But it does nullify ALL of their hate. And we only need a turn or two unfettered to advance the board to where there is nothing they can do to get out of it. It loses us a turn, but allows all-in LED/Bthrough type hands since we have no fear of hate on our empty hand, or us bricking. I'm thinking of something like -3 PImp,-3 Wraith(I only run 3 each), for +3 Grave, +3 Fstorm. But I'm concerned that Grave may be overkill. And that the turn lost either opening with it, or hitting it on a dredge may not justify it's inclusion. Also, while Wraith is superfluous with Grave in play, cutting it means we are open to everything if we don't have Grave.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Parcher

Need opinions;

Silent Gravestone vs. Elves. It does nothing to advance our game plan. And outside hate, Elves can do little to interact with us. But it does nullify ALL of their hate. And we only need a turn or two unfettered to advance the board to where there is nothing they can do to get out of it. It loses us a turn, but allows all-in LED/Bthrough type hands since we have no fear of hate on our empty hand, or us bricking. I'm thinking of something like -3 PImp,-3 Wraith(I only run 3 each), for +3 Grave, +3 Fstorm. But I'm concerned that Grave may be overkill. And that the turn lost either opening with it, or hitting it on a dredge may not justify it's inclusion. Also, while Wraith is superfluous with Grave in play, cutting it means we are open to everything if we don't have Grave.

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I used it last week against Elves and it won me the game. It was the first time I was using Silent Gravestone so I was just throwing it in there to test it out.

On the play I would present the fastest 60 and not care about their hate that doesn't work until their 2nd turn. On the draw I'd try to deal with their hate, so I'd board the grafstones. I would keep in some Wraiths though. I'd most likely trim something like 1 Ichorid, 1 Dredger and 1 Wraith instead.

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Originally Posted by Izor

On the play I would present the fastest 60 and not care about their hate that doesn't work until their 2nd turn. On the draw I'd try to deal with their hate, so I'd board the grafstones. I would keep in some Wraiths though. I'd most likely trim something like 1 Ichorid, 1 Dredger and 1 Wraith instead.

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Problem with that is every list I've seen runs around least 2 Surgical. Going all in blind is one of the few ways we can get blown out by that. I'm actually less afraid of their hate on the draw, as they have to risk exposing it to Fstorm.

They will probably keep in all glimpses and Natural orders, so it may be risky to skip a turn.